One of the Best Things About Generosity

Written byjoshua becker ·

The more you give, the more you receive.

When we give stuff away, we make the world a better place.

Generous people feel better about themselves. They report a greater sense of life satisfaction and happiness. They build stronger relationships with others. Studies have even linked generosity to improved physical health.

Giving also benefits the receiver. We improve their lives. We fight to overturn injustice. We offer an example to the world of a better way to live. And spur others to do the same.

But maybe the greatest benefit of generosity is the realization that we already have enough.

Our society is held hostage by the pursuit of more. No matter how much we have, we always seem to need more—more stuff and more money.

We choose our careers for the sake of securing more. We spend the best hours of our day trying to obtain more. We get jealous when “less-deserving” people seem to have more. And we constantly worry about having enough.

But this constant desire for more is having damaging effects on our society. 71% of us report feeling stress about money. There are some who experience this anxiety because of legitimate financial need, but for most of us, this stress is misplaced. In a world where 6 billion people live on less than $13,000/year, most of our financial-related stress occurs because of artificially-manufactured need.

Generosity changes these thoughts and helps to remove this pursuit. It reveals to us how blessed we already are. It reminds us we already own more than we need. It shows us how much we have to give and how much good we can accomplish. It helps us see the needs of those we live alongside. And it offers a better alternative for our money than spending it on ourselves.

Generosity counters materialism and consumerism in our lives. It reminds us that we already have enough. It wars against greed and selfish pursuits. It aligns our life with higher purposes. And offers a better way to live.

Give more things away. Your life will feel lighter. Your heart will feel warmer. And the world will be better. (tweet that)

Make a financial donation to a charity you support. Donate clothing you don’t wear, sporting equipment you don’t use, books you have read, or furniture taking up space. Be generous with your time by volunteering at your local school, homeless shelter, or nonprofit of your choice.

Just give something away this week. And be reminded that you already have more than you need.

About Joshua Becker

Writer. Inspiring others to live more by owning less.WSJ Bestselling author of The More of Less.

Comments

This is a lovely post – it reminds me that the work I do is really for the cultivation of character and to be of service to others, because truly I “want” for nothing.
Thanx for this reminder, I love to give at Christmas but truly we don’t need a special day. We can give of ourselves 365 days of the year!

There are a lot of great charities out there, but there are a lot of scams as well.

My advice is to do your research, especially by talking to people who use them if you can.

Personal experience with charities in the past have given me a list of places I’d rather burn money than support. Thankfully I also found a great many places that I’ve been happy to give back to now that I’m no longer in the position where I’m the one needing help.

You can look up charity information with the Better Business Bureau to make an informed decision about where you would like to contribute and how those funds are managed. Most individuals working in the nonprofit sector are not in it for the big bucks (in my experience).

I feel that cynicism. I am very picky as to which charities I will donate to. I buy most things at op shops and some I will no longer go to as they are true rip off merchants. They are no longer there for the poor, they are there as a business to make money.
One way to counteract this is to get close to your community. When you do this you either know, or find out through conversation, who is in need. This also has the advantage of drawing a community much closer together. Win win.

Thank you, Joshua. We changed the brakes yesterday on someone’s car and bought them lunch. When they wanted to give us some money—we told them “No way! Just pay it forward and do something nice for someone else today.” These people just needed it break in life—and it felt SO good to be the one to give it to them.

Personally this is true to me, whenever I give to the true needy people even I don’t expect anything in return the Lord who is the owner of everything will give me more, more than I need, and I believed He permit this to happen because He wants me to give more, the cycle of giving is more real to me ever since I made an oath to prayerfully give to the needy. God bless you Joshua.

Yes Bobby i have definitely found this to be true! I have been receiving ongoing financial blessings recently and it is due to the giving i have been doing. Truly the more i give the more i receive and it has been a blessing for me to be able to give. Giving has enriched my life in so many ways, mainly by giving me another purpose beyond myself.

Before coming back home from a 10 month road trip from Toronto to Panama, Thenix and I have given away almost all of our clothes, shoes, and other miscellaneous items. Some of these items had a lot of emotional attachment to them due to the fact that they had been with us through the journey, but the minute we gave them away, we felt a certain lightness. The burden of carrying the stuff back home disappeared. I can’t wait to give away more stuff once I am back home and I realize that I really have too much. Compared to so many out there.

Nice read! I think the truly generous person is the one who is selfish. Yes I know this sounds a little contradictory. But the selfishness I refer here is the one that focuses on only pursuing your won happiness, and doesn’t involve robbing others to make oneself happy.

When you are happy with yourself, you will naturally feel generous. And unless the love comes out naturally, it is not sustainable.

Joshua,
Until recently I had always owned 2 sets of bedsheets. Why? Because that is the way it had always been. Might’ve made sense to just have a spare set but I’ve never needed one, ever. So now I have one set of amazing sheets and one comforter and I discovered something. I love this set of sheets so much. They are a nice thread count and I got them at an outlet for huge savings but I love them because they are singular. I found that paring down has me truly appreciating what I have so much more. Silly as it may sound, I say a silent prayer of gratitude every single time I get into bed and take a moment to really “get” that this is supreme luxury, to have a bed. The extra set of sheets was just unnecessary. Thank you for this post, it reminds me to both be grateful and to share.

Love that comment, I actually have two sets of sheets, perfect number for me, I find with two sets i make bed right away while other set is in wash…that’s what works for me, but I did clean out my dresser by purging so I now have room for extra set.

Thank you for reminding us how blessed we really are. I work a job that pays me for performance. I received a report last week that told me the way I recieve my pay was being changed. I reacted in a decent way to begin with, and was proud that I didn’t let it get the best of me. Then I began thinking about it. I began to react in a way that ending up causing me stress, anxiety, and no one, including myself could change the out come. I addressed it with management, and still couldn’t get any satifaction. I do realize that I work for my income, and I give a good days work for my pay. However, there are people who have less than I, and work harder!

I received some unexpected money over the weekend. I will donate it to a science facility at my old college that does not get state funding.

As part of de-cluttering, I have donated a number of items to Habitat ReStore. Also have given some things away through freecycle. An old TV went to a lady who is having to start over after a serious illness.

This doesn’t make me anything special. But, it did feel good to know that I was helping others in some small way.

Thank you so much for this post. I have been struggling with the idea of retiring. But cannot bring myself to, because I will have to live on a significantly smaller amount of money. And, sadly, I am afraid to be without the same amount of money. Even though I have plenty of everything, even after downsizing, I am still terrified. I will read this post daily, since I really want to retire.
Thank you.

Hi, I’m retired and happily living on less money. But with more flexible time, I can do lots of free things during former work hours: a string quartet at the public library at 3:00 pm on a Thursday. Speaking of the library, I take advantage of so many free programs there plus I’ve bought only a “keeper” art book or the like since retiring. I know have time to use library books and getting them back on time! I volunteer at local museum, for the sheer pleasure of it, including meeting interesting people. An unexpected benefit are discounts at the museum, a nearby theatre.

I say take the leap and don’t look back! Consider all the possibilities you’ll have in your future even with a smaller limited income living simply. Free time to do whatever you want to do whenever you want to do it. Enjoy pursuing interests you love and new interests you’ve always wanted to pursue.

I so look forward to retiring! We combined two households back in 2009. I’ve been downsizing since then. Still a lot to let go of. Joshua’s Blog and Facebook page have inspired me to make the next BIG attack on getting rid of THE STUFF! Making a harder push this year and getting closer to setting the retirement date 2-1/2 to 3 years from now as our goal. Best of luck to you in retirement!

I’ve struggled with depression and nervous issues for years–I started volunteering around my community and soon found that it was a great cure for me. You forgot your own problems when you’re out helping others.

My husband & I are realizing God’s grace and generosity as we continue to open our hands to help others by donating to charities. As we have trusted Him in giving, He has given us more – it seems He is giving to us so we can give more! Praises!

I love this! I feel generosity is contagious in that if you do something nice for someone else, whether it involves money or not, they feel they need to pay it forward and in turn do something nice for someone else. In essence, you are creating a love-filled generosity snowball. If only everyone did this, our world would be completely different.

I agree 100% when you give away, you feel lighter and happier. I try to be generous every single day in some way, shape, or form.

It feels really great when you know you are helping somebody by giving donations and a lot of times the blessings come back. If you’re donating money to a certain charity,make sure to check if they’re legal,nowadays a lot of scams or it only makes its top executives get rich.

Maybe it’s because of the basic human needs – survival, growth and contribution – contribution is the highest, or of dependency, independence and inter-dependence, inter-dependence is the real-est – and giving each time shows up in the highest?

Be it as it may, I agree with your basic premise. Successful people, by virtue of making a contribution, are givers. By giving they attract giving because it magnetizes you. [I feel the Law Of Attraction is a myth in that it declares people attract what they want. It’s only half the truth at most. Mostly we attract not what we want, but what we are, don’t we?]

I spend 1/2 of my life in an away from home Motel. Last year I started leaving $5 every trip to the housekeeper.. amazing the preferential treatment I now get from the motel staff . It is the same motel every trip. It is a good sum but I know that $600 during the past year will mean a LOT to those HARD working people and their families .. it MN ay just be kind of a karma thing but since I’ve started this I always have spare cash in my pocket..

These are truly some of the wondrous benefits of generosity. Here’s another one that comes to my mind. We have to let go of all our material possessions. Letting go of them now softens our attachment and helps us be ready for the big letting go.

“We have to let go of all our material possessions. Letting go of them now softens our attachment and helps us be ready for the big letting go.”
This is so profound… Thank you for sharing. Somehow it was just what I needed to hear.

Realizing material things did not make us happy, my husband and I recently sold our dream home and moved. During the process, we gave away home furniture, yard furniture, appliances, dishes, tools, etc. It was very liberating.

More and more leaving the house every week. Took four boxes to local charity. Two boxes to extra dishes to work for silent auction. Have already set aside things for my son to go thru and Gave my oldest books for her classroom.

I needed this today……I have so many children’s clothing that the kids have outgrown and I keep saving them to sell in a future consignment sale or try to sell on Ebay……it is simply taking up space in my life because I am busy to sell it. On Monday I donated an entire bin to Goodwill and it felt great. I plan to do the same next week. I absolutely love your blog and Facebook page. I find your daily quotes very inspirational and I thank you!

Good for you. I was so ticked off last time I went to a children’s consignment shop, a national or regional chain, I thought I’d rather donate these. Dropped them off. Women’s shelters usually take stuff.

This is great! I too, sadly, am a cynic. I strongly believe in giving, but struggle with my tendency toward “selective giving.” Giving to groups I like. Groups that express gratitude. Groups of people that think like me. And have my values. But I am learning about not judging those who receive. Not easy, but necessary. So I have to learn that maybe I haven’t been able to see into “their” lives well enough to judge them, and never will. Trying not to be an “enabler” I am guided, when I am listening, by the Spirit (insert your “higher power” or motivating reason to give here.) it’s not a Christian thing ( or Buddist, or AA or Muslim, or Hindu or Humanist or any “0ther” selective thing) it’s a universal thing. An all encompassing thing. Your mileage may vary. :-)

We retired when I was 53 and husband was 55. We were offered 40% of our pay as a pension. Since we had finished putting our children through college, they helped with scholarships, work study, etc. we took the deal. We each took part time jobs for about 10 years and now we are completely retired. You don’t need much money if you live simply and plan. We don’t have or need many clothes, take public transportation, and use the library and volunteer a lot. Since we had never lived on all our income and about 1/2 went to either savings or college expenses we’re still putting money away. We never made $100,000 even combined. Don’t be afraid to retire. Minimalism makes a lot of things easier.

I know this is an old post, but I just read it. Thank you so much for this story – you are living the plan we have made for ourselves, still a few years away for us. I’m so glad to hear how well it works! Just how we imagine it to be.

There is truly no substitution for the “high” that you feel when you do something that is for the benefit of someone else. Try it, then try to replicate the feeling with ANYTHING…I mean ANYTHING. It cannot be done. Joy takes all forms, but to arrive in the joy of generosity…….there is only one path.

I’m new to following your blog so perhaps you have already written about the Buy Nothing Project (http://buynothingproject.org/about/mission-and-principles/). It very much aligns with your thoughts on this article, in that it facilitates giving and receiving, sharing and building community at a “hyper-local” level. Buy Nothing groups form within communities and people give away (no selling allowed) items they no longer need to people who are seeking those items. It is truly heartwarming to see the generous giving, deep gratitude and community of friends that has come up through this group.

Really, *really* appreciate this. We never, ever have garage or moving sales – we regularly pass on or donate our excess. We try very hard to have at least two charities on a monthly donation rotation, plus make lump donations to others a few times a year. Yet I still “worry” about money like any other average person. We have no debt to speak of, so I’m not sure where it comes from. I think the more you share, the less you worry, so I need to make it a priority in my life!

Your view on generosity is good, but it’s superficial. Yes, to give when you have a lot is necessary and good for your soul, makes you feel better about yourself and you get to help others. But TRUE generosity is giving when you don’t have anything, giving when you lack, giving when you know that is the last financial resource for your family and your support. Generosity is understanding that nothing that you have is yours, so you give it away because you know that the ONE who gave you all that stuff, will always provide for you. Jesus never talked about those people that gave away of the “extra” that they had, but he praised a widow that gave all she had… True Generosity opens the gates of heaven!